We Baby Boomer kids were fascinated with bubbles. I don't know, maybe all kids share that love, but I personally have lots of fond memories of childhood that involve bubbles of all sorts.
For instance, take Mr. Bubble. In the 60's, no bath was complete without a heaping mass of white bubbles caused by a capful of Mr. Bubble tossed into the running water. What made it so essential to bath time? That endless string of commercials, that's what! Here's a sound file from one I remember well.
There's probably not a single American kid from the 60's that didn't grow a Mr. Bubble beard.
Another bubble phenomenon we all loved was buying a bottle of bubbles for a nickel. It was a little container containing a plastic hoogis that had rings on each end, designed to be dipped into the soapy stuff and either (a) waved through the air, making a string of little bubbles, or (b) slowly blown into by a child with just the right amount of exhaled air, thereby creating a massive vesicle (sorry, but hey, there just aren't many good synonyms for bubble!) of eight or more inches in diameter.
You could also pour the soap solution into a pan and place a massive plastic ring about a foot wide into it and make some truly gargantuan orbs of next-to-nothingness (I came up with that one myself). The manufacturer of the aforementioned giant bubble maker (Wham-O, I believe) also had another big ring with dozens of smaller holes, so you could create a miniature blizzard of smaller sized bubbles.
The bubble pipe was a prime example of a really cool looking product that was disappointing in actual performance. A perfectly designed bubble pipe would have sent a flurry of globelets (I'm seriously starting to run out of synonyms here) skyward with a healthy blast of breath. Instead, it simply produced a flaccid froth, which dripped down the edges of the triune plastic bowls and unceremoniously hit the ground.
Boomers who purchased Pontiac Fieros in the 80's experienced a similar letdown.
Then, there was Super Elastic Bubble Plastic. Just try getting THIS product approved for sale to kids today. It consisted of a tube full of polyvinyl acetate dissolved in acetone, with plastic fortifiers added. The acetone evaporated upon bubble inflation leaving behind a solid plastic film. You rolled up a small circle of said concoction, then inserted a straw and slowly blew into it. All was well, as long as you were in a well-ventilated are, and you did a Bill Clinton. But if you DID mess up and inhale, you got yourself a lungful of fumes that weren't good for you.
However, the semi-rigid bubbles would last, and last.
Then, there was Bubble-Up pop. "A kiss of lemon, a kiss of lime." The now-obscure soft drink was immortalized in Merle Haggard's hit Rainbow Stew. "We'll all be drinkin' that free Bubble-Up, and eatin' that rainbow stew!" Introduced in 1919, it was still around and distributed by Coca-Cola when we were kids. Then Sprite came along, and Bubble-Up slipped into obscurity, although someone out there is still making it. You can get it here, if you're so inclined.
Nowadays, I prefer my bubbles in a bedtime bourbon and coke. But we kids of the 60's sure had a lot of fun with them back in our day.
Comments (4)
I remember having a huge bubble wand that made giant bubbles and then another with alot of holes in it, but I can't remember the name. I'm pretty sure it was from Wham-o. I thought it was called Zillion Bubbles or something like that but google comes up with nothing.
Posted by Rhonda | April 12, 2007 7:34 PM
Posted on April 12, 2007 19:34
another product with a distinctive smell....I love all those industrial additives they put in food and toys in those days. Hippie's seemed to take to the bubble thing quite readily, and made the 60's that much more freaky. If I had a nicke for every picture of a flower-child with granny glasses blowing bubbbs I'd be rich as Carlos Slim(who just passed William Gates III, by the way, for richest humanoid).
Posted by scott | July 17, 2007 2:00 AM
Posted on July 17, 2007 02:00
Ahhhh! Mr. Bubble! Back in the real early days when sometimes you would be taking a bath with little sister! Hey we were real young! Mr. Bubblke would be used! I remember the bubles all over the bath tub walls the floor and on our heads! What's not to like? Well, I guess the parents didn't like it? Seems to me that their was a concern at one point that Mr. Bubble wasn't good for skin. Dried you out?? But I remember it wasn't used much. One real product that really hits home was Crazy Foam! Crazy foam was great! Remember the different character heads! That foam would stick to everything! We used crazy foam a lot more then Mr. B. Blowing bubbles was also preety cool! And I remember always trying to make our own bubble solution with dish detergent. Didn't work to well! I remember the giant bubble rings! It worked! And the blow up plastic! Isn't great how we didn't worry so much about the plastic fumes going in our lungs! Life is grand! I see today they have some real neat electronic bubble machines! Remember trying to catch bubbles in your mouth! Bubbles always bring back great childhood memories! Of course today, if I drink to many cans of cheap beer, I get bubbles on the brain!
Posted by Rivers End | June 9, 2009 9:56 PM
Posted on June 9, 2009 21:56
How about the bottles of bubble bath that came in cartoon characters where the heads popped off and the cap twisted off? I'll be their all collectors items now. Who'd have ever thought it when they first come out.
Posted by Scott Irv | June 10, 2009 5:39 PM
Posted on June 10, 2009 17:39